| NMR, you are exactly on point about the vast difference between audition rejections in the work world and the severance of an educational relationship in which a student has invested 10's of 1000's of dollars. If one reads all of the posts on this issue carefully, what becomes clear is that the problem is not some deficiency in the school's audition process but rather an operational philosophy that gives priority to the program's institutional interests over the educational interests of the students. There is no other rational explanation that reconciles the sheer volume of cuts, the fact that students who are earning very respectable grades in their performance classes are cut and the response offered by the faculty who have posted that since the showcases garner such accolades and commendations by casting directors and agents that the school must be doing something right.
There in lies the rub. While no one is contending that the school does not offer high quality training and education, every thing posted points to the inescapable conclusion that how the program is presented and received by those professionals who attend the showcases, how many students can be placed with agents, is more important than the students themselves. So if a new student comes along who is perceived to be more "marketable" than an incumbent, as far as the school is concerned, there is nothing wrong with cutting the incumbent to make room.
There is nothing wrong with a program having demanding standards for a student to remain as long as the standards are clearly defined, articulable, published and fairly applied. That's why schools that have minimum grade requirements in the major classes, mandated minimum GPA's, regular periodic juries where students get feed back on where they stand and have opportunities to take corrective action, provide a fair and effective way of maintaining quality within the program while still serving the educational mission that a school should have. That's not what appears to be going on here. Instead, students who have expended a mini fortune and committed their educational career to a school, who all along have been led to believe they are doing fine by their grades and daily classroom performance, suddenly find themselves knocked out and replaced by someone who is deemed to be more marketable based on a short audition. In other venues, that would be tantamount to consumer fraud. |